and yes, I know you're hungry too

Menu

Absolute Best Brownies

I was a bit skeptical. When people pin the words “absolute”, “best”, “ultimate”, “the best you’ll ever have. Ever(!!!!)” to the names of certain recipes, it piques your interest. You wonder if these recipe testers and bloggers are so ecstatic about this recipe that they just need to call their recipe “the best ever”. Or maybe it’s all just BS, because the benchmark isn’t at all clear-cut and objective. But it’s worth a shot. There’s that shred of genuine hope, that what you have before you is in fact, the best recipe out there.

I’m talking about these brownies, which could have been prettier had I baked the batter in the right pan. I got this recipe from Joey of 80breakfasts, a food blog that I’ve been following for a while now. I’ve never made brownies before and I thought it made sense that I begin with a recipe that probably has solid credibility (she got it from David Lebovitz after all).

I’ve always been on the fence with brownies. I thought I’ve tasted it all: from the mercilessly rock hard to the uncharacteristically cake-y. I was wrong. I haven’t tasted this one. Now my benchmark for a good brownie has definitely been raised: it should be amazingly fudge-y (uh,duh). This recipe ticks all the right boxes. It deserves to have a superlative in its name.

The only copout was that I didn’t use premium ingredients (hey, I’m broke!). But at least I have something to look forward to when I do get my hands on real butter and fancy chocolate!

3 ounces (around 3/4 of a stick) unsalted or salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for the pan

8 ounces/226 grams bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (I wanted to add walnuts but I didn’t have any on hand)

Line the inside of an 8-inch square pan with 2 lengths of parchment, allowing for excess to extend beyond the edges of the pan (this is how you will pull the brownies out later). Lightly butter the parchment. I used an 8×12 inch baking pan, which probably makes a thinner spread, and consequently, baking time is varied.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Add the chocolate and stir by hand until it is melted and smooth.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla until combined. Beat in the eggs by hand, one at a time.

Add the flour and stir energetically for one full minute. (Accordingly “…this is important so time yourself. The batter is supposed to lose its graininess in this time, becoming smooth and glossy, and pull away a bit from the sides of the saucepan.”) After that, stir in the chopped nuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake in a pre-heated 350F/180C oven until the center feels almost set, about 30 minutes. Do not overbake. IMPORTANT: Since I used a different sized pan (8×12), mine baked for about 20 – 25 minutes

Let the brownie cool completely in the pan (be patient!) before lifting the parchment and the brownie out of the pan. I give it an extra window of time to cool out of the pan as well. Cut the brownie into squares.

Post navigation

9 thoughts on “Absolute Best Brownies”

Absolutely amazing!
Your brownies look tasty and challenging to me.
If you are interested to submit your hi res images of those brownies to our food photography sitehttp://www.foodporn.net , we’re very sure that you’ll make many people hungry
I am already hungry to see these photos btw, LOL

So happy to hear you enjoyed them! I know what you mean about the “best ever” labels…always to be taken with a grain of salt. But these brownies really delivered don’t you think? :) And I love that it is relatively simple to make too! Now I am itching to buy David L.’s latest book!